by
Ven. Nanadassana TheraDear Friends in the Dhamma. I must firstly thank the German Dharmaduta Society
for inviting me to give this talk. It was several years ago that the Ambassador for Sri
Lanka in Italy came once to Mitirigala Forest Hermitage, where I am staying and had a
conversation with me. He used to travel in Europe and gave me a bit of information about
Buddhism in those countries and the reasons why Europeans are turning to find solace in
Buddhism. Once he spoke particularly about Germany, which lies in the heart of Europe. He
told me something, which can be, I think, a brief and comprehensive reply to what people
in Europe actually want and need from Buddhism. The German Buddhists have a motto, he
said, which is their guiding principle. The motto is: "We dont want religion.
We want peace and this is what Buddhism gives us".

It is well known that the prevailing religion in Europe is Christianity. It is derived
from Jesus Christ. His life and so forth as reported in the New Testament by the
Evangelists are the basis of the Christian message and religion. In spite of the fact that
Jesus Christ is depicted to have delivered the message of love to each other or love your
neighbour, yet there are several passages in the New Testament contradicting this message
of love and these should not be overlooked by anyone who wants to understand this European
religion. One such passage is found in Mathew Book 10. Jesus Christ delivers his speech
thus: "Think not that I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a
sword". Other passages are found in Luke Book 12 and 14. Jesus Christ speaks thus:
"I came to send fire on the earth", and again, "if any man comes to me and
hates not his father and mother, and wife and children, brothers and sisters, yea, and his
own life also, he cannot be my disciple". One may wonder if the language here is
figurative or literal.

However, if one looks back at the structure of Christianity, its history reveals
that it is literally not a peaceful history at all. It is full of hostilities,
persecutions, martyrdom, violence, bloodshed, slaughters, wars waged to propagate or
defend the new faith, crusades, forced conversions and baptisms, inquisitions and even
terrible wars between Christians with Christians. According to modern historians, far more
Christians have been killed in religious wars between them than through persecution by the
Romans. The two world wars started in Europe. They are almost forgotten and today there
are no political or religious wars, at least not in Central Europe. Yet the people today
cry out "We do not want religion. We want peace, and this is what Buddhism gives
us".

What is meant here is mental or spiritual peace. A peace which springs from a deep
knowledge. A knowledge that comes from seeing directly the real nature of the inner and
outer world. A knowledge that pacifies mental defilements and frees the mind from mental
vexation. Thus what is required in Europe is a spiritual peace which gives a real
knowledge of the world which Christianity cannot provide to its followers for it is unable
to give them the guidance, advice, precepts, hints, answers and techniques which fulfil
the deep demand of the human spirit and the spiritual dimension of man.

The first contact of any significance between Buddhists and Europe came about as a
result of European colonialism. Although the Indian Emperor Asoka is known to have sent
envoys to Greece in the third century BC, Buddhism could not take root there due to the
prevailing unfavourable conditions. Later Islamic expansion throughout the near East
erected a formidable barrier between Europe and India. By the beginning of the 19th
Century, however, interest in Buddhist ideas was clearly beginning to emerge in Europe. Of
course, a few independent thinkers had earlier recognised the rationality of Buddhist
thought. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who lived in the 19th Century must be
given pride of place.

To Schopenhauer, Buddhism was the best of all religions because it was preferable to
Brahminism with its Caste system and even more preferable to Christianity with its
fallacious ideas about God and its defective code of ethics, which has no moral
consideration for animals, and sometimes not even for human beings. Schopenhauers
knowledge of Buddhism was based on the rather incomplete and inaccurate source materials
then available. Nevertheless, the affinity between his philosophy and Buddhism is in many
ways striking and a close look at Schopenhauers teachings reveal it as a kind of
incomplete Buddhism. Schopenhauers philosophy became popular during the later part
of the 19th Century and his high regard for Buddhism has definitely contributed towards
the interest in it not only as a subject of study but also as a way of thought and life
with which one can identify. It was only during the later years of his life that
systematic attempts were first made to arrange and translate the huge volumes of Buddhist
scriptures.

Hermann Hesse, a German author and essayist, and Nobel Prize winner, once wrote about
the pacifying essence of the Buddhas discourses. He wrote "Whoever attentively
reads a small number of the countless discourses of the Buddha is soon aware of harmony in
them, a quietude of mind, a smiling transcendence, a totally unshakeable firmness, but
also invariable kindness, endless patience. As ways and means to the attainment of this
holy quietude and peace of mind, the Buddhas discourses are full of advice,
precepts, hints".

Thus, however dimly most people in all Buddhist countries may apprehend the doctrinal
content of Buddhism, their conviction of its depth and wisdom is shared almost
instinctively by intelligent men and women everywhere. No religion, other than Buddhism,
has set a higher value on the states of spiritual insight and liberation, and none has set
so methodically and with such a wealth of critical reflection the various paths and
disciplines by which such wholesome states are reached as well as their ontological and
psychological underpinnings that make those wholesome states so valuable and those paths
so effective.

Strictly speaking, Buddhism aims at cleansing the mind of impurities, agitation and
disturbances, such as lustful desires, hatred, hate, anger, ill-will, indolence, worries,
restlessness and sceptical doubts, and at cultivating good qualities such as
concentration, awareness, intelligence, will, energy, the analytical faculty, confidence,
joy, friendliness, compassion, tranquillity and so forth, leading finally to the
attainment of the highest wisdom that sees the nature of mind and matter as
they really came to be and realising the ultimate truth, peace, Nibbana. Thus peace can be
found in ones own purified mind.

Greed, hate, delusion and vulgar behaviour mainly caused by the mental defilements and
passions, have existed in humanity before and during the Buddhas time. All these
exist also today in the same and even worse manner. For those who abhor any kind of base
bodily, verbal and mental behaviour and wish to attain a state of moral and spiritual
purity, the Buddhas Teaching offers an excellent guidance. Moreover, it is a
Teaching that is not restricted to any historical times, and the moment one puts it
properly into practice one gets immediately good results. Therefore it is called
akalika.

Educated Westerners can gradually acknowledge Buddhism to be not only a message of
great sophistication but also one of exalted ideals. Perhaps the most striking evidence
that Buddhism continues to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration is the fascination it
now holds for the Western World.

To many in Europe and also America, Buddhism seems to be a spiritual movement
well-suited to mankinds future, being grounded in reason and therefore in harmony
with the prevailing spirit of scientific empiricism. Offering a path to salvation from all
suffering, Buddhism requires no blind faith and no belief in the supra-natural. Those who
encounter its refined morality and profound wisdom can only regard the Buddhist tradition
as one of the greatest achievements of Man. It is, therefore a reassuring thought that
despite recent reversals of fortune, Buddhism would not merely survive but may possibly be
on the brink of a new age of appreciative revaluation.

Many remarkable men have worked to spread Buddhism in the world. Out of those great
Buddhist workers who deserve to be honoured today is the late Sinhalese monk, Ven.
Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thero, well known also by his lay name as Mr. Asoka Weeraratna.
Seeing the necessity to propagate Buddhism, especially in Germany, he succeeded with his
heroic efforts, sacrificial labours, devotion and energy in establishing the German
Dharmaduta Society and a Centre for Buddhist Missions in Berlin for the benefit of the
German people. In his missionary enthusiasm to spread the Buddhas message in the
world, he directed his efforts not only to spread Buddhism abroad but also in his own
mother country, Sri Lanka.

At a time when Buddhism had lost its most supportive and protective structure, namely
meditation, he established in 1967, a Forest Hermitage not very far from Colombo to enable
Buddhist Yogi Monks to meditate and contemplate in a suitable and peaceful environment.
The Forest Hermitage was named Nissarana Vanaya where thirty fully equipped independent
dwellings for yogis were constructed for meditation. He brought there the most respectful
meditation teacher, the late Venerable Matara Sri Nanarama Maha Thera, widely recognised
as one of Sri Lankas outstanding meditation masters of recent times, to be the guide
and instructor. Apart from Sinhala Buddhist monks and laymen, many foreign monks and
laymen alike got the opportunity to pursue here the practice of meditation with full
dedication, unhindered by other tasks and duties. Some of them came from USA, some from
Canada, England, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Yugoslavia,
Czechoslovakia, Greece, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia, and New
Zealand.

In August 1972, Mr. Asoka Weeraratna himself became a monk under the monastic name Ven.
Dhammanisanthi. As a layman and afterwards as a monk he served the cause of Buddhism in
these and many other ways abroad as well in his mother country, Sri Lanka. His name will
be included in a historical book now in preparation by the Sri Kalyani Yogashrama
Sansthawa, an association of forest monks in Sri Lanka. May he, by the vast accumulation
of this merit attain Nibbana.

May also the noble objective of the German Dharmaduta Society to propagate Buddhism in
Europe be achieved in increasing measure in the years to come, thus spreading peace and
happiness in this life itself among the good people in Germany and also in other countries
in Europe, and guiding them ultimately towards the attainment of the supreme bliss of
Nibbana.

Ven. Nanadassana is a Buddhist monk from Greece who has lived in Sri Lanka for the last
20 years. He resided in the Mitirigala Forest Hermitage for over 19 years. He has studied
and practised meditation under the guidance of the late Most Venerable Matara Sri Nanarama
Mahathera, the first Meditation Master at the Mitirigala Forest Hermitage. Ven.
Nanadassana was well acquainted with Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thero (Asoka
Weeraratna), the founder of the Mitirigala Forest Hermitage. He has studied the Tripitaka
under Sinhala Theras and Mahatheras and has thus acquired a theoretical and practical
knowledge of Buddhism. He is fluent in several languages (including Sinhala) and is the
author of the book Bhikkhu Patimoksha in German.